College of Nursing Students Competed in Second Annual Global Health Case Competition
Two undergraduate students and three DNP students at the UK College of Nursing recently competed in the second annual Global Health Case Competition (GHCC) hosted by the UK Global Health Initiative at the College of Pharmacy on Sat., Feb. 27.
A total of twelve interdisciplinary student teams representing 15 different colleges developed strategies to address different ways to combat childhood obesity in Mexico. Among the participants from the College of Nursing were:
- Joy Coles, BSN, RN, DNP student
- Whitney Lynn, DNP student
- Lucy Hollingsworth Williamson, DNP Student
- Julie Currie, undergraduate
- Amanda Wilson, undergraduate
Each team served as a multidisciplinary consultant team to the Division of Child Health in Mexico’s Ministry of Health. Not only did they create a strategy for reducing the health and socio-economic burdens of childhood obesity in Mexico, but they determined the costs and trade-offs involved.
Currie and her team created an initiative, “Mueva Mexico” or “Move Mexico,” which took a multi-dimensional approach to focus on the society, community and family layers of the socioecological model. Some methods they used included implementing excise taxes, requiring healthcare providers to take public health courses and helping families engage in healthy activities such as gardening, cooking or sports.
“Working on this project with students from other disciplines allowed me to see the importance of interprofesional interaction in creating the best plan of care for patients,” said Currie. “We collaborated with our specific skill sets to achieve one common goal.”
The teams had 15 minutes to present their strategies to a panel of judges, followed by a 10-minute question-and-answer portion. Joy Coles and her team placed second in the Global Health Competition, followed by Lucy Hollingsworth Williamson and her team in third place.
The first place team will advance to the 2016 International Emory Global Health Case Competition on April 8-9 at Emory University. There, they will face teams from 24 other universities who will collaborate to learn about, develop and recommend innovative solutions for the 21st century global health posed problem. The first-place team at the Emory competition will win $6,000.
The UK Global Health Case Competition is organized by the Global Health Initiative, whose mission is to advance research and educational programs for students to improve the health of people throughout the world.
For more information about UK’s 2016 Global Health Case Competition please visit the GHCC website.
